Opposition Parties Call For Resignation Of INEC Chairman Ahead Ondo Guber Poll

By Niyi Olutunde, Akure

Ahead of the October 10 governorship election in Ondo state, some opposition parties, have called for the immediate resignation of the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu over his incompetency to save the electoral system from collapsing.

Mr. Biyi Poroye, Chairman of the Emerging Political Platform (EPP), which encompasses all the opposition political parties in the state, made the call while speaking with CityMirrorNews on Wednesday in Akure.

According to Poroye, new things had not been added into Nigeria electoral system since the former INEC chairman, Attairu Jega had left the commission.

He said, “the current leadership of INEC under Professor Mahmood Yakubu is not doing anything. The commission under him is just a waste of exercise. So far since Attairu Jega left the commission, he had not added anything new into the system but rather getting the system deteriorated.

“I think Federal Government needs to look beyond either you are an academician or professor. I want to see a person like Professor Isiaq Oloyede heading INEC and see whether there would not be changes in the system not someone like Yakubu.

“In the last election you can’t believe it that INEC were printing party agent cards, they spent millions of naira to print this party agent card for political parties. Is that the business of INEC? Tell me what are they doing. When you took over from somebody you need to be creative so that people can say you have gotten it right”.

The EPP chairman, who also lamented on how INEC conducted the November 2019 governorship election in Kogi state, however, appealed to the commission and the Federal Government not to come and repeat what happened in the Kogi state gubernatorial poll in Ondo state.

Poroye said, “look at the Kogi state governorship election, guns everywhere is that free, fair and transparent election? The answer is No. Yakubu has taken us back as issue of election is concern in this country. I think we need to bring in younger people into the system, the old people that are there should go and resign since they do not have power or knowledge to give us new things.

“For us in EPP, what we are doing now is what we call electoral cultivation, bringing electorate into the party making them to believe in our vision and mission. Our position in the last State Executive meeting was to allow political parties to choose their candidates at the primaries whereas we will set up a committee that will do check and balancing of each candidate before joining that political party for the election.

“We are actually doing the best and we know that any party that we are collapsing our platforms to will win the forthcoming governorship election.”

He also appealed to the members of the platform to be very careful and have believe in the party’s vision and mission.

“We will never take wrong decision whoever that will win the election will win narrowly. So EPP is going to play a major role”, Poroye said.